In 1938, legendary Jazz Promoter John Hammond saw a huge business opportunity.
He organized and promoted a concert in New York City featuring the three masters
of a new vibrant art form. When Albert Ammons, Pete Johnson and Meade "Lux"
Lewis performed in Carnegie Hall, it launched a national craze. Businesses and
clubs had to hop on the bandwagon and get with the program. Newspapers began to
assign special editors to cover the 憁usic beat?and report about this incredible
energy as its popularity spread into the clubs. Soon all of the 揾appening?places
were featuring top musicians playing these infectious energetic tunes. Club
owners seeking to get good reviews and 揷ash in?would do whatever necessary to
bribe the music editors so they could acquire good press. Bribes of free food,
free drinks, free women were commonplace. Musicians and club owners understood
that one bad review from the critics would kill the good times! Or so they
thought?br />
The name of this musical art form was Boogie-Woogie. The
slang term that the musicians gave to the critics was the Boogie
Man!
Yes, the Boogie Man was the monster who could criticize and sit in
judgment.
In spite of his inability to create or understand music they
somehow were qualified to evaluate it. The Boogie Man, like an executioner could
determine the fate of musicians and club owners with his words. The Boogie Man
was fear incarnate. He could kill the party as quickly as the review could be
published. The Boogie Man was bad news!
It is horrifying to think about
how the Boogie Man turns the possibility of a dream into a nightmare. Or how the
Boogie Man distorts our own ideas of success and happiness by making us believe
that he can stop the music in our lives! All illusions that unfortunately every
great artist has embraced at some point in their careers.
Stop and think
about what life would be like without the telephone, the car, airplanes,
electricity, the internet or any other incredible creation that man has created
to resolve the problems related to survival. I can assure that these blessed
inventions would never have seen the light of day if their creators were
concerned about the boogie man. The boogie man is not only a concern over the
judgment of others. The boogie man is much more insidious, he represents
everything in our life that we cannot take responsibility for. Our blame list so
to speak. The boogie man is that part of us that makes us believe that the
problem is somewhere over there.
Have you ever noticed how scared people
are of being judged?
I tell you this story because I consider todays search
engine the boogie man of the new millenium. The search engines sit in judgment
just like the boogie man of yesteryear. They terrify small and large businesses
alike. Worse they judge and never establish the criteria for their
judgment.
My question to you is, who empowers todays eBoogieman?
If
you understand what creates high search engine rankings you can always do the
dance and get them back.
My advice: Get On The Other Side of
Judgment!
Promote, Promote, Promote.
There are lots of ways to drive
traffic to your website that do not rely on the eBoogieMan.
Sometimes it
takes death to teach us about life. Occasionally we must go through misery to
understand joy. And sometimes it takes the slang born in the Great Depression to
understand that we will always get whatever we put out attention on. You can
Boogie Woogie or you can waltz with the Boogie Man. The choice is always yours!
No comments:
Post a Comment